[music playing] The history of Lexington, Kentucky, has long been tied to being the home to two major universities.

The University of Kentucky, eventually to be known as the Wildcats, began shortly after the Civil War as the Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical University.

Transylvania University is aptly named the Pioneers, as this was the first institution of higher learning west of the Alleghenies.

Now, this school has played a major role in the growth of Lexington, and it would also have a major role in the development of that other Lexington University.

[music playing] Transylvania University was established as Transylvania Seminary in 1780 by Virginia's General Assembly to be located in the western part of the state known as Kentucky County.

The school held its first classes in 1785 in a small cabin near Danville.

In 1792, as Kentucky separated from Virginia and became the 15th state of the United States, Lexington leaders looked to attract this institution of higher learning to the city.

Lexington's population had grown to about 2,000 people, people with great determination wanting to create a wonderful city with amenities that they had enjoyed in Virginia and the Carolinas and other places.

So, there was a great drive to build this great place for themselves and their future.

Lexington gave Transylvania Seminary a plot of land along 3rd Street in 1793.

The plot, simply named Plot 6, over the next century would become known as Gratz Park, but it would immediately serve as the College Square.

In 1799, the school became Transylvania University, establishing both a medical school and a law school.

For Lexington, these schools drew professors and professionals who would enhance the quality of its culture and improve the economy of the city.

In 1805, Henry Clay was appointed as a professor of law.

Students of this law school would go on to become U.S.

senators, governors, and federal justices, including Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan.

Transylvania in that era trained many of the Western America's top lawyers and top physicians in the 19th century and really made a lasting impact on Lexington and its economy and kind of the history of education in Kentucky.

As Lexington and its economy grew, the streets surrounding the campus of Transylvania attracted many influential families, whose homes, such as the Bodley-Bullock House, still stand today.

Transylvania University would build a beautiful administration building at the head of the campus.

With the addition of this level of academics, Lexington would experience advances in both art and science and earn the title The Athens of the West.

In 1818, Transylvania University recruited its third president, Horace Holley of Boston.

Under Holley's leadership, the new medical college would rival the best schools on the East Coast.

We were definitely the Western edge of European expansion through the continent, and at the time, many people believed that diseases were regional and the diseases you might get in Philadelphia were different than the diseases you might get in New Orleans, for example.

And so, we actively advertised that people in the regions should send their sons to Transylvania so that Western men could teach them about Western diseases.

In 1829, the administration building on College Square burned down.

Transylvania chose Gideon Shryock, the architect of the state capitol in Frankfort, to design a new building, Morrison Hall.

Morrison Hall was built across Third Street as the campus expanded in that direction.

When the nation entered the American Civil War, Morrison Hall served as a hospital, caring for soldiers injured at the Battle of Perryville.

[music playing] As the war ended, Transylvania University made a decision that would lead to the establishment of Lexington's second major university.

The school merged with another college, Kentucky University of Harrodsburg.

Together on Transylvania's campus, they took the name Kentucky University and added a new department, the Kentucky Agriculture and Mechanical College.

Needing more space, this department was moved to the land at Henry Clay's home, Ashland.

In 1878, Kentucky's legislature worked with the two schools, forming the Commonwealth's first land-grant college, Kentucky University Agricultural and Mechanical College at Ashland.

The agreement to use Ashland as the home for the school ran out just two years later, putting the school in the position of needing a new location.

Bowling Green, Kentucky made a strong attempt to lure the university away, but Lexington, recognizing the value of such higher learning, fought hard to keep the school.

An offer of both money and land would win the battle.

In 1880, the Kentucky University Agriculture and Mechanical College would move and immediately began building an administration building that still stands today.

In 1908, it became the administration building for State University Lexington, Kentucky, that would be renamed in 1916 to the University of Kentucky.

And in 1908, Transylvania was no longer known as Kentucky University, but once again as Transylvania University.

It remained at its original location along Third Street, with Morrison Hall overlooking Gratz Park, where it began.

And it would continue to grow as one of Lexington's and the state's prized universities.

[music playing]